Monzo in Colombia 🇨🇴 [Discussion]

I agree the rate is extortionate. I have withdrawn money twice. A couple weeks ago, I followed the advice and withdraw 400.000 pesos. I was shown the option of rates – local bank vs UK – I chosed UK. I was a happy person. Yesterday, I went for a bigger amount, I was not given the option of two conversion rates. The Davivienda rate was plain caca (3550 versus 3750 on financial markets) I have not seen such a spread in my life. That amounted to around 100.000 pesos difference, which is not much in pounds but in Colombia 100.000 pesos is a fairly useful amount of money. Plus I was charged by Monzo because I withdrew more than 200 pounds so that was a double wammie.

So basically, what’s your advice? Withdrawing money at an atm as soon as you land in Colombia and accept the UK exchange rates or going for davivienda hoping they won’t charge in the card? It seems impossible to get COPs in the UK. Thanks!

Any up to date news on this? I’ll be travelling to Colombia in December!

Gracias in advanced!

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I left Colombia few weeks ago. Davivienda was my ATM of choice until the very end of my stay as there’s no fee and I can easily choose original conversion rate instead of their own.

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Monzo works just fine in ATMs here. I have to spend time here as we are setting up a subsidiary operation, and I find it easier to use than pre-paid currency cards. Good win for Monzo.
Ps the locals at checkouts just LOVE the Coral colour!!
Denis

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Just as an update, there is still no fee to use davivienda. There are plenty of their ATMs about and you can take out as little at 20k pesos at a time.

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I did this in the US thread, now I’ll share my experiences from Colombia. Here is a list of ATMs that don’t charge, from my experience:

Bancolombia - free
Banco Caja Social - free
Banco Falabella - free

Update May 2019 (visited for 2 weeks)
BBVA - no fee and you can withdraw at exchange rate but at some ATMs I would receive an error and the card would be returned, retrying would give the same result. Some ATMs worked fine.
Davivienda - no fee but they force you to use their conversion from GBP to COP (this wasn’t always the case) so you lose money there

When I was living in Colombia in 2018 BBVA became the bank I would go to, since most of the others in my experience had a fee, however they are not as prevalent in some towns.

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unfortunately Bancolombia is NOT free. I tried in Cucuta city and did not work.

only Davivienda’s cash machine’s can provide me cash free of charge

Go to a Davivienda cash machine then you are good to go :slight_smile:withdrawing money free.

Bancolombia’s cash machines WILL charge you.

@Dawid I presume you meant 143.45 COP? and 136.89 COP? COP = Colombian Pesos

:):wink:

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Columbia is a District in the United States - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.
British Columbia is a province in Canada - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia

COLOMBIA is a country in South America. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia

:wink::innocent:

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Thanks for this update. Bancolombia was free in Bogotá in March. Maybe they’ve changed since then, or maybe it depends on the location. It’s worth checking.

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yes, I agree. I think maybe in Bogota is different than other cities.

Nope I meant what I wrote :slight_smile:

Can report same findings as Dawid.

Anyone used any ATMs recently that do now charge a fee?

I have used Bancolombia in Bogota recently and got charged 14500 COP.

Never been the case before.

I had problems to get cash from Davivienda in Bogotá, but it could be the amount i was trying to get (800.000). I have to go to a near BBVA because the big queue i was making for a smaller amount (300.000) without problem.

No fee was applied.



At the end this rate was applied

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Another try at Davivienda. Rejecting the conversion, I try 300.000 & 200.000 pesos. Again declined.